Announcing the 2025 Federal 100
By
Jessie Bur
Meet the 100 people that made outstanding contributions to government last year.
For more than 30 years, the Federal 100 awards have sought out and spotlit the people in government, industry and academia who have dedicated themselves to producing outstanding work on behalf of the American public in the last year. This cohort has proven no exception.
Our all-volunteer group of judges poured through the hundreds of nominations that were submitted this year to accomplish a near-impossible task: narrow the list down to the 100 most exceptional examples of federal work.
It is an honor to hear their stories of dedication and vision, which you will get to glimpse yourselves via the profiles we will publish in the Nextgov/FCW magazine and on Nextgov.com, as well as in person at our Evening of Honors on April 3 to celebrate the Fed 100 winners and Government Hall of Fame inductees.
For now, the list of names below represent some of the best and brightest our community has to offer. The titles and organizations listed reflect the roles these individuals held in 2024 when doing the work that earned this recognition — although some may have moved on to other positions or even retired.
Jay Alalasundaram
Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Software Applications and Services, Office of Information Technology
Customs and Border Protection
Billy Annibell
IT Program Manager, Postal Service Health Benefit Program
Office of Personnel Management
Betsy Beaumon
Chief Transformation Officer
Social Security Administration
Chris Bedi
Chief Customer Officer
ServiceNow
Moira E. Bergin
Director, Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, Committee on Homeland Security
House of Representatives
Steve Blank
Adjunct Professor; Founder Hacking for Defense, Founder Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation
Stanford University, Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation
Alexis Bonnell
Chief Information Officer and Director of the Digital Capabilities Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory
Air Force
Abby Bowman
Web Modernization Lead and Chief, Web Services Office
NASA
Lucas Brown
Chief Innovation Officer, Office of Grants
Department of Health and Human Services
Melvin Brown II
Deputy Executive Director, Office of Human Capital Data Management & Modernization
Office of Personnel Management, Office of the Chief Information Officer
Caroline Bruckner
Managing Director, Kogod Tax Policy Center & Senior Professorial Lecturer, Accounting & Taxation
American University Kogod School of Business
Bill Burnham
CTO, U.S. Public Sector
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Juan C. Castillo
Chief, National Recruitment Office
Federal Bureau of Prisons
Merav Ceren
Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Deputy Policy Director, National Security & Science
Senate
Matt Chong
Senior Vice President of Public Sector
Qualtrics
Jeff R. Claunch
Director of Enterprise Hosting Solutions
Department of Agriculture
Greg Clifton
General Manager, Federal Sales
Intel
Michael Coppola
Director of Client Success
Dcode
Luis A. Coronado, Jr.
Chief Information Officer, Bureau of Consular Affairs
Department of State
Robert J. Costello
Chief Information Officer, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
Department of Homeland Security
Karin Dasuki
Director, Office of Finance and Accounting & HQ DFO
Department of Energy
Baibhav Devkota
Executive Director
Customs and Border Protection
Mark DeVol
Vice President of Federal Sales
Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions
Sarah E. Esty
Senior Advisor for Technology and Delivery
Department of Health and Human Services
Meredith Evans Wagner
Program Lead: Technology, Planning, and Integration for Observations
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Alice Fakir
Sr Partner & Vice President of IBM Cybersecurity Services Federal
IBM
Justin Fanelli
Acting Chief Technology Officer (and Technical Director PEO Digital)
Department of the Navy
Thomas "Pat" Flanders
Chief Information Officer (J-6)
Defense Health Agency
Boyd C. Fletcher
Director of Engineering, National Cross Domain Strategy and Management Office (NCDSMO), Cybersecurity Directorate
National Security Agency
Victor Foulk
Vice-President, Emerging Technologies
CGI Federal
Christopher Frommann
Senior Counselor to the Administrator for Technology, Strategy and Delivery
Federal Emergency Management Agency
John Garrett
VP, Department of Defense
Dell Technologies Federal
Josh Geiger
Director of Operations, National Emergency Medicine Office (NEMO)
Veterans Health Administration
J. Matt Gilkeson
Chief Technology, Data, and Artificial Intelligence Officer
Transportation Security Administration
Venice Goodwine
Chief Information Officer
Department of the Air Force
Arun Gupta
CEO
NobleReach Foundation
Colt Hagmaier
Assistant Administrator for Recovery
Federal Emergency Management Agency
David Hathaway
Defense Sector President
ManTech
Noreen Hecmanczuk
Senior Advisor to the Federal CIO
Office of Management and Budget
Jessie Hernandez
AI Innovation Leader
Capgemini Government Solutions
Laura Hill
NRE FS Assistant CIO
USDA Forest Service
Dr. Travis Hoppe
Former Assistant Director of Artificial Intelligence Research and Development
White House Office of Science Technology Policy
Matt House
Program Manager, Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
Allison Hutchings
Senior Advisor for Technology Policy at TTS
General Services Administration
Colonel Nathan L. Iven
Acting Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Cyber and Data
Space Force
Deidre L. Jackson
Senior Vice President for Solution Engineering
Owl Cyber Defense
La'Naia Jones
Chief Information Officer
Central Intelligence Agency
Robert C. King
Chief Data Officer and Vice Chair, Federal CDO Council
Department of Energy
Bud Kinzer
Director, Public Sector Partner Sales
HashiCorp
Steve Krauss
Director, HR Quality Services Management Office
Office of Personnel Management
Stephen W. Kucharski
Acting Chief Information Officer, Director of Office of Performance and Systems Management
Small Business Administration
David Larrimore
Chief Technology Officer
Department of Homeland Security
Dave Levy
Vice President of Worldwide Public Sector
Amazon Web Services
Jim Lewis
Senior Vice President and Pritzker Chair
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Christina Liaghati
Department Manager, Trustworthy and Secure AI
MITRE
Candice Ling
SVP, U.S. Federal
Microsoft
Lynn Martin
Chief Growth Officer
Workday Government
Bill McElhaney
Chief Information Officer
Citizenship and Immigration Services
Brigadier General Michael T. McGinley
Director, GigEagle and DOD Agile Talent Ecosystem; Mobilization Assistant to the Commander, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center
Air Force
Leah McGrath
Executive Director
StateRAMP
Dr. Sonya A. H. McMullen
Deputy Director for PNT, DOD CIO
Department of Defense
Beth Meagher
Principal, U.S. Federal Health Sector Leader
Deloitte Consulting LLP
Danielle Metz
Chief Information Officer, Office of the Secretary of Defense
Department of Defense
Dr. Celia Merzbacher
Executive Director
Quantum Economic Development Consortium
Felipe Millon
Federal Sales Lead
OpenAI
Chief Master Sergeant Kevin J. Miner
Senior Enlisted Leader, Cyberspace Capabilities Center
Air Force
Eric A. Munson
Manager, Enterprise Applications
Naval Reactors
Jay Nakashima
President
eHealth Exchange
Vu T. Nguyen
Chief Information Security Officer
Department of Justice
Ross Nodurft
Executive Director
Alliance for Digital Innovation
Giovanni U. Onwuchekwa
Chief Strategy Officer, FAS
General Services Administration
Yemi Oshinnaiye
Chief Information Officer
Transportation Security Administration
Shelu Patel
Director, Operational Technology
Customs and Border Protection
Udaya Patnaik
Chief Innovation Officer, Information Technology Category, FAS
General Services Administration
John M. Pekarik
Director, Digital Products, Office of Online Services
Internal Revenue Service
David A. Peters
Associate Chief Information Officer
Department of Agriculture
Jennifer Pahlka
Senior Fellow
Federation of American Scientists and Niskanen Center
James Pickard
Technology Advisor, HQ Cyberspace Capability Center
Air Force
Chad Poland
Service Manager, Secure Cloud Business Applications
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
Angelica "Angie" Quirarte
Senior Advisor, Talent Strategy and Service Delivery
Office of Management and Budget
Ravi Raghava
Chief Technology Officer, Civilian Business Group
Science Applications International Corporation, Inc.
Colonel Steven Ready
Deputy Commander, Cyberspace Capabilities Center
Air Force
Adarryl Roberts
Chief Information Officer
Defense Logistics Agency
Bridget Roberts
Chief, Direct File
Internal Revenue Service
Bill Rowan
Vice President of Public Sector
Splunk, A Cisco Company
Cathleen A. Rush
Deputy Director, Office of ARSOF Autonomy
U.S. Army Special Operations Command
Charles A. Santangelo
Senior Cybersecurity Supply Chain Risk Advisor, DHS Liaison to the FASC
Department of Homeland Security
Michael Sarich
FOIA Director
Department of Veterans Affairs
Colonel Christina L. Sheets
DHMSM Program Manager, Chief Dental Informatics Officer
Defense Healthcare Management Systems
Paul J. Shute
Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for the Office of Automated Benefits Delivery
Department of Veterans Affairs
Heather N. Stier
Senior Advisor for Acquisitions & Vendor Relations, Information Technology Vendor Management Office, Federal Acquisition Service
General Services Administration
Stephanie L. Studds
Assistant Associate Director for Economic Programs
Census Bureau
Craig M. Thomas
Chief Information Officer
Merit Systems Protection Board
Donald Ulrich
Director, Trademark Product Delivery Division
Patent and Trademark Office
Karen L. Van Dyke
Director, Positioning, Navigation, and Timing & Spectrum Management
Department of Transportation
Peter Warren
Senior Advisor, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
House of Representatives
Nick Weber
Acting Director, Office of Scientific Computing Services
National Institutes of Health
Kristen H. Wilson
Strategic Acquisition Data Management Lead
Office of Management and Budget
Solomon Wilson
Cyber Security Project Manager
Indian Health Service
James Wolff
Associate Administrator for Information Management and Chief Information Officer
National Nuclear Security Administration